Alien abductions are a phenomena whereby normal, everyday people claim to have been abducted by extraterrestrial humanoids, whisked away to their ships, and subjected to strange experiments, oftentimes invasive and painful.

Furthermore, there is a widespread belief that these alien beings have traveled to Earth from other planets to conduct reproductive experiments on a chosen few. Despite the incredible nature of this belief and a lack of credible proof, a cult following has grown up around the idea. Some experts claim that surveys show up to 4 million people could have been abducted by aliens unbeknownst to them. Pretty scary stuff.

Are the abductions real? Do they really happen? Or, are the people who claim to have been abducted by aliens not to be trusted; are their accounts merely elaborate fabrications – or hoaxes perpetrated by sinister individuals bent on toying maliciously with the imaginations of the gullible.

Whatever your thoughts, it seems there are far too many cases of so-called normal people, people with everyday jobs – school administrators, post-office employees nurses, etc. – who have had such strikingly similar experiences that we must take alien abduction seriously. In many cases, the tellers of these strange stories have seemingly little incentive to concoct such elaborate lies.

According to a Gallup poll conducted at the end of the twentieth century, about one-third of Americans believe aliens have visited us – an increase of 5% over the previous decade.

CoverUps.com takes a look into Alien Abductions.

Alien Abduction: An Intro

Few mainstream scientists believe the phenomenon literally occurs as reported, and some experts contend the field is rife with kooks and pseudo-science. But there is little doubt that many apparently stable persons who report alien abductions are sincere and respected individuals in their own communities.

Such as Harvard University professor John Mack:

As reported in the Harvard University Gazette in 1992 Mack, who investigated over 60 claimed abductees, came to this conclusion: “'The majority of abductees do not appear to be deluded, confabulating, lying, self-dramatizing, or suffering from a clear mental illness.”

Mack spent countless therapeutic hours with these individuals only to find that what struck him was the 'ordinariness' of the population. His abductees included a restaurant owner, several secretaries, a prison guard, college students, a university administrator, and several homemakers.

In his books on the subject, Mack explained that common features of alien abduction experiences in North America included the following:

1. The feeling of paralysis
2. The perception of having been transported immaterially, frequently through a beam of light
3. The sense of having been surgically probed or implanted with devices
4. The freezing or slowing of time
5. Sexual or reproductive contact or manipulation by the aliens

But to best understand the subject of alien abductions, we first need to know a little bit about when, historically, they were first reported and when they began to capture the public imagination.

Alien abductions, though chronicled prior to the 1960s, even as far back as hundreds of years ago, first drew widespread attention with two landmark cases: The Betty and Barney Hill Case and the Antonio Villas Boas case.

Betty and Barney Hill

The Hills’ story became so well known it spawned a made-for-TV broadcast in 1975. The largely forgettable effort starred James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons. The Hill incident remains to this day the prototypical abduction case, possessing all of the classic hallmarks of alien abduction lore.

So what happened? Let’s take a look.

The Hills, a mixed race couple, were returning to New Hampshire from a holiday in Niagara Falls on the night of September 19, 1961. Traffic was light as Barney drove through the White Mountains on Rt. 3. Around midnight the couple noticed a strange light in the sky that started to move.

Barney stopped the car. He observed the object through binoculars. He told Betty it was probably an airplane. She in turn was preoccupied with giving their dog some time to stretch his legs. Soon they were back in the car and on their way down the dark road.

As they continued, the object seemed to follow them. Its movement in the sky ruled out the possibility that it was a star or a planet. It was at this point that they began to think something was highly unusual about the object.

It changed direction and drew closer. Betty looked at it through the binoculars and she saw that it was disc-shaped, with a band of light around its circumference.

They stopped the car once again and Barney got out, intent on getting a better view of their follower.

The disc got so close to Barney that he was able to see several beings staring down at him through lighted windows. Suddenly he panicked, crying out, "They're going to capture us!"

He darted back to the car and they sped off. The next thing the Hills were aware of was of strange sounds they described as "bleeps."

The next day Barney noticed some unexplained blotches on the sheet metal of the car. He also felt soreness at the back of his neck and had scuff marks on his shoes.

Some time later the Hills realized they could not account for two hours and thirty-five miles of their journey.

They began to suffer from stress, for which they had no obvious explanation. Betty experienced horrible nightmares in which she was taken into a room and examined by strange beings.

Within a year the Hills saw Dr. Benjamin Simon, a Boston Psychiatrist who specialized in hypnotic therapy. Dr. Simon regressed the Hills using hypnosis, separately, so that neither would know what the other had said. A horrifying story emerged that filled in the period of amnesia.

Over several months an account was weaved together telling how their car was stopped by a group of strange-looking "men" with pear-shaped heads and large wrap-around eyes. The beings forcibly carried the Hills into the lighted object, where they were taken into separate rooms. During their separation the couple underwent various tests by the "aliens" which included the taking of hair and skin samples.

While inside the craft Betty remembers seeing a "star map."

Later, under post-hypnotic suggestion, she was able to reproduce the map. In 1974 an Ohio school teacher and amateur astronomer, Marjorie Fish, published the results of her studies of the map.

After five years of examining the map Ms. Fish discovered it matched the Zeta Reticuli system. However, noted astrophysicist Carl Sagan examined the Fish map using a more accurate computer program and found no such similarity. But the Hill abduction case has survived Sagan’s skepticism.

Today, it stands as the Roswell Incident of alien abduction theorists.

The Antonio Villas Boas Story

At the time of his alleged abduction, Antonio Villas Boas was a 23-year-old Brazilian farmer who worked at night to avoid the brutally hot tropical sun. On October 16, 1957, he was plowing fields near São Francisco de Sales when he saw what he described later as a "red star" in the night sky.

According to Boas, this "star" approached him, growing in size and detail until it became recognizable as a “roughly circular or egg-shaped aerial craft, with a red light at its front and a rotating cupola on top.” The craft descended to the field, extending three "legs" as it did so. At that point, Boas bolted for cover, fleeing for safety.

He attempted to leave the scene on his tractor, but when its lights and engine died after traveling only a short distance, he continue on foot. It was then he was seized by a five-foot tall humanoid, who wore grey coveralls and a helmet. Its eyes were small and blue, and instead of speech it made noises like “barks or yelps.” Three similar beings joined the first in subduing Boas, and they dragged him inside their craft.

Once inside the craft, Boas said he was stripped of his clothes and covered from head-to-toe with a strange gel. He was led into a large semicircular room, through a doorway marked with strange red symbols. (Boas claimed he was able to memorize the symbols, and later reproduced them for investigators.) In this room the humanoids took samples of Boas' blood from his chin.

After this he was taken to a third room and left alone for roughly half an hour. During this time, some kind of gas was pumped into the room, which made him violently ill.

Shortly after this, Boas claimed he was joined in the room by another humanoid. This one, however, was female, very attractive, and naked. She was the same height as the other beings he’d encountered, with a small, pointed chin and large, blue catlike eyes. The hair on her head was long and white. Boas said he was strongly attracted to the woman, and the two had sexual intercourse.

During the act, Boas noted that the female did not kiss him but instead nipped him on the chin and, like the others he’d encountered, expressed itself vocally with barking noises.

When it was all over, the female smiled at Boas, rubbed her belly and gestured upwards. Boas took this to mean that she would raise their child in space. She seemed relieved that their "task" was over, and Boas said he was angered, because he felt as though he’d been little more than "a good stallion" for the aliens.

After his clothing was returned to him the humanoids took him on a tour of their ship. During this tour he said he tried to take a clock-like device as proof of his encounter, but was caught by the humanoids and prevented from doing so. He was then escorted off the ship and watched as it took off, glowing brightly. When Boas returned home, he discovered that four hours had passed.

Antonio Villas Boas died in 1992, and stuck to the story of his alleged abduction for his entire life. In that time he became a lawyer, took himself a wife and had four children by her.

Travis Walton

This baffling UFO case began on November 5th, 1975, in northeastern Arizona's Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. A logging crew of seven men, working on a government contract, were clearing forest. At the end of a long day they piled into a single pickup truck to go home. As they started their drive, they saw, not far from the road, a "luminous object, shaped like a flattened disc."

The crew testified that Travis Walton, captivated by the sight of the disc, left the truck to get a closer look. As he gazed up in awe at the object, a brilliant bluish light struck him and threw him to the ground some distance away. The rest of the crew fled the scene in fear for their lives.

After arguing among themselves, they decided to return and see if they could help Travis. When they got there they found no trace of the craft, or Travis.

A personal friend of Travis, Mike Rogers, was the crew foreman, and driver of the truck. According to Rogers, as the men fled the scene, he looked back and saw a "luminous object" lift out of the forest, and disappear toward the horizon.

Rogers and the other five workers eventually took lie detector tests. All of them passed, save for one inconclusive, and soon the case exploded into the national spotlight. Walton reappeared five days later, confused and scared, with fleeting memories of alien entities, and descriptions of the inside of their craft.

He also took to a number of polygraph examinations, which he passed. The Travis Walton event became the first abduction case to be given serious consideration by credible scientists. Walton’s story forced the general public to reevaluate its own deeply held prejudices on the subject.

Who are the aliens?

Grey aliens are alleged to come from Zeta Reticuli. Image from Wikipedia.

For the most part, alien abductions are thought to be the work of the “Greys,” a species of aliens that we have come to know as short, hairless, with big bug-eyes. Greys are also known as Roswell aliens, Zetas, and Reticulians.

Typically, Greys are described as being either approximately four feet tall or over six feet tall, with grey, sometimes blue-grey or green-grey skin. Their bodies are described as being elongated, and lacking in muscular definition. Their legs are short and jointed differently than those of human beings. This gives them an awkward gait. Their arms often reach down to their knees. Some ascribe them three digits, or three digits and a thumb on each hand. Greys are said to have bulbous, bald heads supported by a thin neck. Their most notable feature is their large black eyes, which many say allow them to read your mind. Greys typically have small flat noses, small mouths, and small ears. In some cases, Greys are said to have slit-like nostrils on a flat face.

Other theories

Some theories hold that alien abductions have been on the rise because of the Greys who crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The U.S. Government, according to these assertions, recovered the alien craft and its occupants and have been meeting in secrecy with aliens ever since. Perhaps you have heard of an infamous place called Area 51. Thus, the rise in UFO sightings is due to a macabre pact under which our Government trades human guinea pigs for alien technology. We invite you to learn more about Roswell and Area 51 in our Great CoverUps section.

CoverUps.com Conclusion

Are alien abductions real? It seems they are very real to a great many people who would be considered thorough normal under different circumstances. It would follow that if aliens were indeed able to exceed our arbitrarily-imposed limits with regard to the speed of light, it would not be a stretch to imagine them perfectly capable of leaving no physical trace of their technology behind. Erased minds and disconcerting feelings aside, perhaps we owe the Greys a doff of our tin cap.

Real or imagined, we need to treat alien abductions seriously because they impact normal everyday people in traumatic ways. Those people deserve our help; not our ridicule. So, in the end, as more people come forward with horrifying stories, it behooves us to be mindful and respectful of the ordeals they have undergone.